Collaborative Research: Reducing Student Resistance to Active Learning: Applying Research Results to Faculty Development

这个合作项目涉及密歇根大学(到期奖金-1821488)、巴克内尔大学(到期奖金-1821036)、德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校(到期奖金-1821092)和俄勒冈大学(到期奖金-1821277)的研究人员。在高校STEM课堂上用“主动学习”取代讲课，是一种行之有效的方法，可以增加学生对概念的理解和对STEM学习的坚持不懈。然而，广泛推广主动学习方法仍然是一个挑战，因为教职员工和学生都倾向于抵制改变他们的教与学习惯。这个项目的重点是学生的抵抗，因为这是采用基于证据的教学实践的障碍，例如主动学习。学生的抵制是STEM教学变革最具可操作性和最少被研究的障碍之一。研究人员之前的研究主要集中在工程教育上，确定了教师可以用来减少学生对主动学习的阻力的策略。在这个项目中，他们将设计和测试一个研讨会，以教育不同STEM学科的教师如何使用策略来减少学生的阻力。他们将进行研究，以检验学生的阻力如何影响教师在未来课堂上使用主动学习的计划，并测试他们之前的发现是否适用于其他机构和学生群体。通过这项努力，至少90名STEM教师将具备使用基于证据的策略来减少学生对主动学习的阻力的能力，这些教师代表了广泛的两年制和四年制院校，拥有不同的学生人数。将研究他们态度和做法的变化，以了解这种专业发展对学生抵抗和持续采用主动学习的影响。研究者的主要研究问题是：(1)精心设计的教师发展研讨会在多大程度上促进了解释和促进策略的使用，以减少阻力？(2)教师采用主动学习的动机(即自我效能感和价值观)在多大程度上缓和了研讨会对教师行为的影响？其他课程层面和机构层面的变量在多大程度上缓和了研讨会对教师行为的影响？(3)教师使用减少学生阻力的策略对学生的情感反应和学生对主动学习的阻力有什么影响？学生对主动学习的抗拒程度与教师个人使用主动学习的经验有多大差异？(4)学生的情感反应是否在教师使用策略对抗拒的影响中起到中介作用？(5)学生对主动学习的抗拒在多大程度上影响教师在未来课程中继续使用主动学习的计划？研究人员打算通过在科学和科学教育期刊上发表文章，以及在科学教育和专业发展会议上向大量STEM教师发表演讲来传播该项目的材料和结果。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This collaborative project involved investigators at the University of Michigan (Award DUE-1821488), Bucknell University (Award DUE-1821036), the University of Texas at Austin (Award DUE-1821092), and the University of Oregon (Award DUE-1821277). Replacing lectures with "active learning" in college and university STEM classrooms is a proven means of increasing students' understanding of concepts and their persistence in STEM studies. Yet it remains a challenge to spread active learning approaches widely because both faculty members and students tend to resist change in their habits of teaching and learning. This project focuses on student resistance as a barrier to the adoption of evidence-based teaching practices such as active learning. Student resistance is one of the most actionable and least studied barriers to STEM instructional change. The investigators' prior research, which focused primarily on engineering education, identified strategies that instructors can use to reduce student resistance to active learning. In this project, they will design and test a workshop to educate instructors in different STEM disciplines about using strategies to reduce student resistance. They will conduct research studies to examine how student resistance influences instructors' plans to use active learning in future classes, and to test whether their previous findings apply to other institutions and student populations.Through this effort, at least 90 STEM instructors, representing a broad set of two-year and four-year institutions with diverse student populations, will be equipped to use evidence-based strategies to reduce student resistance to active learning. The changes in their attitudes and practices will be studied to understand the effect of this professional development on student resistance and on the sustained adoption of active learning. The investigators' primary research questions are: (1) To what degree does the carefully designed faculty development workshop promote the use of explanation and facilitation strategies to reduce resistance? (2) To what extent does instructor motivation (i.e., self-efficacy and value) for adopting active learning moderate the effect of the workshop on instructors' behavior? To what extent do other course-level and institution-level variables moderate the effect of the workshop on instructors' behavior? (3) What is the effect of instructors' use of strategies to reduce student resistance on student affective response and on student resistance to active learning? To what extent does student resistance vary with the individual instructor's experience using active learning? (4) Does student affective response mediate the effect of instructor use of strategies on resistance? (5) To what extent does student resistance to active learning influence instructors' plans to continue using active learning in future course offerings? The investigators intend to disseminate the materials and results from this project via publications in scientific and science education journals, and presentations at science education and professional development conferences that reach a large number of STEM faculty members.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.